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If you have been stung by a bee or bitten by an insect or even an animal like a snake, plantain poultices can help. Plantain poultices can draw out venom before it has a chance to do damage, can reduce swelling, prevent anaphylactic shock, or delay a severe reaction until medical care can be reached.

Steps

1

Find plantain growing. You are not looking for the banana relative, but Plantago major, a flat plant with a rosette of smooth green leaves that have distinctive vertical ribbing- something like a weedy version of a hosta, although usually smaller. They grow in lawns, under shrubs, in weedy places and in sidewalk cracks. They do not have poisonous lookalikes. There is a picture here.

2

Pick several large leaves and clean them off.

3

Put the leaves into your mouth and start chewing. They should have a mild "green" taste. It is best that the injured person chew his own leaves, for sanitary reasons and also because it helps to swallow some of the juices of the leaves during the process. The enzymes in saliva help break down the leaves so the constituents are available.

4

Chew for a few minutes until you have a green mash.

5

Take the green mash and glop it over the bite and any inflamed area around it.

6

Cover loosely with a bandage. It helps not to completely occlude the poultice because the drying helps exert a drawing action.

7

Reapply as the poultice dries, to enhance the drawing action. You can also reapply if the area starts swelling again. Throw away the old poultice.

8

If your tongue or airways start swelling up, call the Emergency Services and reapply. Chewing the leaves and making and reapplying the poultice can buy you time.

You can also make spit poultices from other plants like self heal (Prunella vulgaris)which excels for splinters, violet leaves which are slightly analgesic, or the roots of the coneflowers echinacea or black eyed Susan (rudbeckia). If you see nothing useful, clay or mud will work to physically draw until you can get proper first aid.

The root can be added to the poultice if there is bleeding.

Mashed plantain is also good for the skin.

Plantain leaves look a bit like a weedy hosta, often with a spike that is covered with seeds. You distinguish it from a hosta by its rather thin leaf, its inoffensive taste and its weedy nature.

Warnings

Bites from brown recluse spiders or venomous snakes usually require medical attention. Use the poultice first, but do not necessarily depend upon it as a sole treatment.

If you have a tendency to anaphylactic shock from bee stings, know that plantain poultices do not necessarily prevent this from happening. I have seen it either prevent the shock or delay it for as many as five hours. This can give you time to get medical attention or an Epi-pen.

If possible identify or capture the animal that bit you for further testing.

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 31,175 times.